Registered Nurses
The North Central Coast has multiple RN programs and strong occupational opportunity. The evidence now points to constrained seats and selective entry, not an absence of training.
The decision context.
EDD North Central Coast, 2023–2033
EDD North Central Coast
64 selected in the 2025 cycle
Cabrillo per cohort / Hartnell per cohort / MPC each fall
Strong evidence stays separate from weak evidence.
Market opportunity
EDD reports 2,560 projected regional openings for 2023–2033 and a $139,739 regional median annual wage.
Training supply
Cabrillo, Hartnell, and MPC provide in-region RN pathways; Gavilan is a nearby regional asset.
Capacity + access
Cabrillo publishes 390 applications with 64 selections in its 2025 cycle and plans roughly 27–32 students per cohort. Hartnell publishes 50 students per cohort and MPC up to 48 new students each fall.
Outcomes
2024/25 first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates are verified for Cabrillo, Hartnell, MPC, and Gavilan. Hartnell also reports 93% program completion for 2024, while MPC reports 96% employed upon graduation.
Workforce-system status
Program-level CalJOBS ETPL status remains unverified for the loaded RN programs. Exact DataVista program/cohort outcomes are also still pending.
What is already available.
What this response means now.
What to do with the current evidence
- Validate whether faculty, clinical placements, or other program resources are the binding constraint on additional seats.
- Test whether incremental capacity can be added inside existing programs before considering a new RN program.
- Use the current licensure evidence as an outcome check, while adding reproducible employment and earnings outcomes.
What would change this finding?
- If existing seats are going unfilled, the diagnosis would shift away from capacity.
- If added clinical or faculty capacity is infeasible, access/readiness interventions may matter more than scaling seats.
- If employment, earnings, or licensure outcomes deteriorate materially, redesign would become more important than expansion.
Only collect evidence that could change the decision.
- Verify program-level ETPL status in CalJOBS for Cabrillo, Hartnell, MPC, and Gavilan.
- Reproduce exact DataVista RN completions, employment, and earnings by institution/cohort.
- Collect clinical-placement capacity, faculty vacancy/capacity, applicants, admits, yield, and completion data.
Current developments that may change this brief.
Shown only when a retained signal has a defensible link to this occupation and geography.